«Made in Mercosur,» the vision for productive integration of the regional bloc

Asunción, Agencia IP.- Advancing towards a productive integration that allows for the joint manufacturing of goods among the countries of the regional bloc is the consensual vision among the Mercosur Economy Ministers who met this Sunday in Asunción, within the framework of the LXIV Meeting of the Common Market Council.

«We were discussing the new vision of Mercosur that we all want, a type of integration that is no longer political, which was the origin of Mercosur, or a commercial vision where one country produces a good that has free access to the market of other countries,» expressed the Minister of Economy and Finance of Paraguay, Carlos Fernández Valdovinos, at the end of the meeting.

«Here we are talking about integration in the productive sense, basically so that we can integrate the production chains of the different countries. So, it will no longer be a good product in Paraguay, Brazil, or Argentina but a good product that is partly produced in Paraguay and partly in Brazil. It will truly be a good produced in Mercosur,» explained the minister.

He pointed out that the maquila, through which goods are being produced jointly between Paraguay and Brazil, is an excellent example of this productive integration and noted that «this is the direction in which the new Mercosur should go.»

Through the maquila, Paraguay has developed an entire auto parts industry that primarily supplies wiring to the Brazilian automotive sector. The auto parts companies in Paraguay and the assembly companies in Brazil operate under an economic complementarity logic that allows them to gain competitiveness in the international market, benefiting both countries.

The minister mentioned that in the meeting of the Economy Ministers and central bank presidents, they also discussed the countries’ growth prospects and the impact of climatic factors on them, as well as the role of multilateral organizations in providing timely assistance in times of crisis.